The Prompt You Say! - 3. Prompt 104 - Meeting Alex

I’d just dropped Christine and our daughter, Lisa, at the hair place. It was their weekly appointment and their mother daughter time. Needless to say I was sent food shopping and I had Ted in a cart before me. I still thought we were crazy having kids so far apart in age. I mean who needs kids in pre-school and junior high at the same time?

While Chris and Lisa were having girl time, getting their hair and nails done, I was taking Ted grocery shopping. I didn’t mind doing the shopping cause it meant I got a break from hearing my son beg his sister to play with him, while all she wanted to do was talk on her phone or play on her computer. Boys and girls never want the same things at the ages they are at now. I am proud to say that Lisa will make time for Ted, but not as much as Ted would like.

I was just turning the corner to grab a box of Raisin Bran when I seen me, or I guess you can say him. I know that old joke that everyone has a double somewhere but I’d never believed it till just that moment. At forty two years old I wasn’t too different from the other men I knew. I was getting that middle age spread, the gray was coming in, and I had the little lines everyone gets around the eyes. Till that moment I hadn’t worried about any of it.

“Look Daddy, it’s you!”

The man who could have been me looked up and stared. Immediately I knew I had been eating too much and not exercising enough. He had my old figure from high school. I could see the narrow waist, emphasized by the dark blue shirt tucked into his light gray pants. The charcoal gray shirt under the dress shirt showed off his tan. There were no wrinkles, no gray hair, and god he didn’t have a damn ounce of fat on him. The other major difference was I didn’t see a gold wedding ring like I had on.

“Hi. Guess what they say is true.”

The stranger even sounded a bit like me. Alright so his voice was a bit deeper but damn, did I have to keep coming up short.

“What would that be?” I asked looking at the expensive leather coat he had laying across the children’s seat at the top of the carriage.

“We all have a double. I’m Alex. Nice to meet you.”

“Raymond, but everyone calls me Ray,” I answered as I took his hand and shook.

“And who is this little guy?”

“I’m Ted. I’m five.”

“Well he is going to be five, shortly.”

My son shot me a look, but turned and studied Alex. He seemed as curious as I was.

“I see. Nice to meet you too, Ted.”

A moment later a stunning girl about Lisa’s age came up.

“Dad, I want to … oh my God.” She paused staring at her father and myself. “You two look so much alike. Um … Sorry. That wasn’t very nice.”

Alex and I both laughed. We were having the same sort of reaction.

I would have loved to found out more about Alex, but Ted had other plans.

“Daddy,” he whispered pulling on my sleeve, “I gotta go.”

Alex looked him and smiled.

“Sorry, nature calls.”

Alex nodded and his daughter just kept watching me.

As I began to move back toward the meat section so I could get to the bathroom for Ted I heard Alex and his daughter start to talk.

“Dad, I didn’t know you had a twin?”

“I don’t.”

“Dad, you have to tell Dad Max. He will never believe us.”

I was turning the corner then and lost anything else they might have said. Seems my other was in much better shape, had at least one child, and perhaps an ex-wife who had remarried. Christine wasn’t going to believe my day, but I knew I was putting myself on a diet starting right now. Those chips and the beer definitely weren’t going home with me today.